Friday, October 19, 2007

Taking Stock

Aggregät456 has been around a little over a year now. You wouldn't know it, especially since I post so infrequently, and especially since I received relatively few comments. I have all this site-meter-tracking stuff, which kinda gives me an idea of who reads this website and when. But honestly, I have a difficult time reading these, seeing that such apps are primarily designed for those who are trying to maximize the return on their investment.

Which is to say .... that has nothing to do with this website. And I cannot really tell you what it's about. Yes, I study architecture. I write about architecture. I think about it during my waking hours .. I have to, it's my job. This site first started out as a way to hash out paper ideas for school. Then it became a place to place aborted paper ideas. And then, a place to repost papers or projects I have previously written. And now?

Today, I visited varnelis.net, a site that (along with Speedbird, BLDGBLOG, and others) I frequent daily. Kazys' latest post is a totally apposite commentary on the nature of blogging, a post that is rightly critical and tacitly pessimistic about the relationship between self-publishing and the built environment. But what struck me about the post was a link to a top-ten list of architecture blogs ... a list that includes this very website.

Aggregät456 is listed as a "must read." Although I am incredibly thankful for the positive encouragement, I have to ask, a must read for who? Architects? Urban planners? Graduate students? Undergraduates? Dilettantes? Enthusiasts? I only ask because the site never aspired to much more than a virtual notebook, a place where I could communicate with the very ideas and images that continue to interest me to this day.

In other words, I share Kazys' own ambivalence about online publishing. I wonder how this site will change over time. I already changed the color scheme. That's something, right?

It might have something to do with your quality writing and the sense that you have thought about what you write well in advance of writing it. It's not pure whim or pure vanity, it's mental work. That makes it a satisfying read. Kudos to you for the extra recognition!

this is a456

Originally conceived as a place to post thoughts about architecture, this site now contains a variety of design-based ideas that cut across various disciplines (for more fun, you can go to my other site or you can say "hello") .